African people throughout the world have a world view which is conceived as a universal oneness.
There is an interconnection of all things that compose the Universe. Pierre Erny1
(1973) has
observed that " The African cosmos is like a spider web: its least element cannot be touched without
making the whole vibrate. Everything is connected, interdependent."' This interconnectedness is
conceived as a kind of "vitalism" or life force which pervades all of nature: rocks, trees, lower
animals, the heavens, the earth, the rivers, and particularly man, who is a vessel for this oneness
which permeates and infuses all that is.
An African conception of personality must then begin with such an elemental notion of the person.
One cannot begin to speak of humans without first speaking of this force that defines our continuity
with all things within the world. The Dogon people of Mali refer to this force as Nyama, which flows in
our veins with our blood and connects all of our actions and all of our circumstances with the
functioning of things in general. The Bambara (Mali and Ivory Coast) call it the dya which serves
to unify all things in nature. The Akan of
Ghana refer to it as a person's Okra - their life force; it is a
small bit of the supreme force that lives in every person's body (it is by definition what gives one life
and returns to the supreme force when one dies). In the United States, this notion of a universal force is
most closely rendered by the American Blacks' notion of "soul." Despite the small variations in the
conceptualization of this force, such a notion serves as the basic substratum for beginning to understand
the African person.
Relationships between men and within men are regulated by notions of flow. Flow is rhythm and
rhythm becomes a useful way of conceptualizing African people's rendering of the notion of
personality. Definitions of personality in the West emphasize the uniqueness and the insularity of the
individual. Because of the vitalism and rhythm that constitute the genetic structure and dynamics of life,
it is essentially nonsensical to speak of a separate and isolated entity called the "self." When viewing
African people one must understand the self from what Wade Nobles2 (1974) has described as the
ontogenetic concept of self (i.e., "self as an interdependent entity shared with all members of
the tribe.") Rhythm then becomes a key concept in understanding the function of the person from the
African perspective. The concept of vibration, movement, or flow unifies all people and all things.
Therefore, the point of emphasis for an African Psychologist would be the relationship and the
interconnection between people rather than focusing on the separateness, uniqueness or
individuality of people.
From the perspective of the individual, the life process is regulated by their submission to the rules of life. The person maintains their internal rhythm by the observance of certain basic ideas of self-respect and respect of others. Proper rituals and relationships that reinforce their connection with the "tribe" (community) renew the recognition of the universal life force that flows within and through the person as a whole. On a very concrete level this is reflected in the considerable social orientation of African people. The very idea of isolation or seclusion among African people is synonymous with madness. The coming together and sharing with each other in a harmonious manner reaffirms the rhythmic flow between self and others.
Dancing is highly symbolic and significant when viewed within this context. The rhythmic nature of
music that shatters the illusion of separateness and fuses the listeners into a shared state of being
becomes an affirmation of unity among the people.
Throughout the world, social gatherings among Black people constitute a high priority value. Dance is a ritual that actively expresses the reunification of the dispersed forces of oneness. The old pejorative that stated that Blacks have "natural rhythm" and the mockery that has been made of Black Ritual dance is an indication of the misunderstanding of the true symbolic meaning and significance of rhythm and dance. It is particularly disturbing that dance which has such a high spiritual significance has been reduced to the level of raw carnal significance, which is the usual view of things by Western observers who rely upon the empirical as their criteria for understanding the world. (In other words, dance is viewed as a sublimation of either aggressive and/or sexual impulses from the perspective of the popular Western Freudian view).
With an appreciation for the unique perspective of the African person, one is less likely to attribute
inappropriate Western ideas and understanding onto a culturally distinct people. For example, when one
understands this kind of cultural distinction and is able to appreciate the precedent of socializing over
individual separateness, they would be less likely to offer isolation as a solution or treatment for people
suffering from stress or personality disorder.
It is interesting to note that mental disorders among European-Americans is treated by an immediate
isolation of the person from familiar people and contexts, whereas in African settings, the entire
family is viewed as a participant in restoring health and order. There are interesting parallels of this
notion of coming together as a curative force in all parts of the world there are people of color. During
a time of illness, the traditional treatment of the person usually entailed the congregating of the
"tribe's" herbalist, along with the religious leader, the elders, and the immediate members of the
family. Often to the accompaniment of drumming (a universal metronome of rhythm) and chanting,
the treatment was executed by group participation.
Such a congregation often continued until health had been restored. Forde3 (1970) observes in
describing the Dogon people:
Disorder...which for an individual results especially from the breaking of the rules of
life, prefigures the universal disorder which spreads by stages from the individual to his close kinsmen, his family, his clan, his people. But the disorder may be arrested
and removed at any stage by appropriate rituals.
Even in the United States where the African people are most alienated from their true nature, one finds
vestiges of this same pattern. It is considered a real contribution on the part of family members, friends,
and religious leaders to come and "sit up" with the sick person. The participation in the cure by visitation
and communion is still an important social value among Africans in the United States. One
needs to make only a brief visit to a local hospital and watch the swarms of Black family members
and friends who come to surround the ailing victim.
This is in contrast with the emphasis on isolating, limiting visitors, and restricting visiting hours found
in Western settings for treatment of the sick.
Education is another area where an understanding of rhythm and communion might correct many of
the errors of educating Black youth that grow out of the imposition of alien concepts of personality onto
Black students. With this idea of socializing and it's significance within the African view of the world,
one would be less likely to replace people by machines in the teaching process. They would also
understand the superior of am interactive format in educating Black people. One can better understand
the alienation of a Black student from the classroom which forces dreaded isolation or
dehumanization. The most common complaint about the Black student is the disruption caused by
the excessive socializing which goes on in the classroom. From a perspective of rhythm, one is
made aware of the unnaturalness of the classroom
setting that fosters isolation rather than the eminent value of socializing.
It is interesting to observe how the phenomenon of participation permeates Black group settings. The
common pattern of call-and-response found in all settings from the fields to the church, from political
rallies to religious observance; the rhythm of shared participation becomes the tie that binds the
diversification of function. The leader in his authority makes a call; the listener shares in the call
by responding and supporting the call of the initiator. The rollicking "Amens," "Right ons,"
That's right," which characterize the ongoing support of the audience soon obscure the distinction
between the speaker and listeners and, again, the motif of oneness is restored. The key idea of this
part of the discussion is that it is meaningless to conceptualize an individual personality among
African people. When such insular notions are used as the basis for intervening into the life processes of
Black people, one condemns their efforts to failure from the outset because such notions are alien to the
nature of African people.
The concept of unity or rhythm also explains African kinship patterns. The tribe obtains its group
definition based upon its common genesis. A man without lineage is a man without citizenship,
without identity, and without allies. Nearly all tribes have a mythological system that defines their
derivation from one source. This becomes a critical notion for social organization and social control, as
well as reinforcing the notions of rhythmic socializing described above. The often-described
extended family among African people is relevant to this notion of oneness. Among the Dogon, for
any individual, all uterine kin represent femininity and all paternal kin masculinity. "A man calls all
women who are uterine kin, whatever their age, mother (na),- he calls all adult men of his patrilineal
kin father (baj) "~ Such kinship patterns serve to reinforce the notion of interdependence which Is
derived from the notion of a single unifying life force which flows through all people and all things.
Again, there are derivatives of this notion found in Black Americans' families and social patterns. The
extensive number of "distant" relatives who are incorporated into the nuclear family often baffles
cultural aliens. The inclusion of cousins removed by a factor of fourth or fifth into the immediate family
fold is not unusual, particularly in rural settings of the United States. The use of "para-kinship" ties is
described by Robert Staples5 (1974), where males and females who are "unrelated" to one another "go
for" or have "play" brothers and sisters who have the same loyalties and responsibilities as "blood"
relations. Such relationships even further extend the far-reaching kinship patterns. Particularly among
Black Americans, the pattern of referring to each other as "brother" or "sister" serves to foster that
notion of kinship among all people. Such kinship
ties and titles serve to reinforce the flow among all members of the group.
'With this perspective, the Black family is not subject to the considerable criticism it has received
from scholars who have chosen to view the Black family as an aberration of the model European
family which, like its cosmology, is much more closed and insulated. White social workers,
psychologists, and educators have found themselves utterly confused when they have attempted to list,
define, or describe Black families utilizing the guidelines that have grown from their own
experiences. Such extended kinship patterns are as practical as they are spiritually and philosophically
significant. Such patterns of kinship serve to establish an implicit social control and morality that
make external coercion unnecessary in observing laws and respect for human relationships.
It is particularly interesting to note that as these indigenous kinship patterns begin to erode, there
has been a parallel increase in disharmonious relationships among Black groups. The extensive
documentation of Black-on-Black crime, especially in the cities, is the clearest example of the
consequences of the erosion of natural African patterns of family. Particularly in the cities, contact
with alien people and imitations of their patterns as well as the considerable stress of urban living have
served to erode these natural kinship patterns. Disharmony has resulted from the disruption of
flow and interconnectedness in these alien environments. The housing patterns the absence of
adequate opportunity to form firm kinship ties, the excessive crowding of urban living all serve to
erode these socially facilitative kinship patterns. One observes as a consequence a kind of perversion
of these natural patterns. The brotherhood of one's age group mutates into delinquent gangs that must
defend their territory as well as their identity in response to excessive congestion, as well as
imitative of a modeled life-style communicated by the alien media.
The loss of spiritual definitions of kinship in lieu of the considerable material emphasis of the
environment further serves to erode these relationships. The few instances where such kinship
patterns have been re-instituted and utilized as a means of social cooperation and social control have
been successful only in those contexts where there has been a reactivation of the concept of a unifying
spiritual force. Certainly, the Nation of Islam serves as the most dramatic example of the facility of unity
within a context of a shared vitalism. It is precisely because of the activation of this spiritual vitalism
that such a spirit of fraternity persists within the Nation while it erodes rapidly in more superficial
contexts, such as the attempt to use political identities as a sufficient cause for unity.
The perpetual alternation or vibration of opposites maintains the energy behind the unifying vitalism,
which reflects a principle of twinness that ideally should direct the proliferation of life. "Nothing in
the universe can be generated without the cooperation of complementary principles or 'twins'
whose archetype is the feminine-masculine couple."6 The fundamental law of creation is the
principle of twinship. Even at the level of the individual, humans are conceived as possessing
"two souls of opposite sexes, one of which inhabits his body while the other dwells in the sky or water
and links it to them," according to the Dogon.7 "Man and woman are each provided with twin
souls, one of each sex."8 The very cohesion of man with nature, man with himself and man with woman
is regulated by the principle of 'twinness and the attraction of opposites. "Diverse elements are
bound to each other by meaningful relationships. They make a closely woven fabric formed by
threads of warp and woof."9
The distinction between male and female is the essence of their union. It is in this area that the most serious toll of the slavery experience was taken. The traditional distinction of the roles between the sexes was obscured by the manipulations of the slave master. The persistence of the basic slavery social order which has sustained tie Black man in a subservient and dependent role while fostering the domination of the woman has prohibited the return to more natural patterns of role definition. The absence of real masculine prerogatives for the Black man has left his role obscure, which has, in turn, obscured the role of his complement. In addition, identification with the uni-sexuality of the alien culture that surrounds us has further obscured the distinction between the sexes. The pejorative quality of sexism has made the contrast of femininity even more abhorrent to the Black woman. Consequently, the alternation of opposites that should be personified in male-female relations is disordered. The cohesion that is achieved by the attractive force of opposites is disjoined by the confusion of roles.
In traditional society, male and female roles are distinct. The separation and interdependence of the sexes is a basic theme of their social organization and ritual. In some societies there is also a marked segregation of the sexes with men and women taking their meals separately, dancing in separate groups. On festive occasions they do not mingle but enjoy themselves in separate groups. The primary necessity to have independence before interdependence among Black men and women has confounded those relationships in the United States from the outset. Most of the conflicts between the sexes emanate either from the economic and status pressures of living in a passionately materialistic culture or from the inevitable jealousies of the dependent and insecure.
Again, we find among the members of the Nation of Islam a return to the cohesive balance of opposites
in the relationships between men and women. Without being relegated to an inferior status (on the
contrary, the Muslim woman becomes the recipient of considerable exaltation), the woman is able to
accept a submissive role to the man. The man must submit to real justice and learn to lead without
exploitation as a consequence of the independence that has freed him from the shackles of dependent
oppression. With an appreciation of the implicit opposition of forces within their roles, they are free
to develop individually and collectively in a mutually supportive direction. It is remarkable that
submission, which is a preeminent value among most Black people of the world, has attained such a
negative connotation as a result of its association with slavery and its aftermaths. As a result of the
support that the pairs of opposites give each other, there is an equilibrium that the individual being
conserves within oneself. The individual is able to
stabilize the twin souls within through achievement of the external stabilization in the balanced
male female relationship. In traditional societies, sexual mutilations are seen symbolically as producing
within the person a definite dis-equilibrium, dispossessing them of one part of the self, and
compelling them to seek outside in the human community and specially in marriage that
which is lacking.
It is impossible to speak accurately of Black personality without speaking of Black religion.
Sterling Plump observes:
By Black religion I mean those ways in which Black people in Africa and later in America, conceptualized to explain the universe and man's relationship to it and to subsequently govern man's relationship to man.10
Religion became the rituals for regulating the rhythms of life, which flow from the force of oneness that permeates all things in the Black man's world. John Mbiti (1970) says:
traditional religions permeate all the departments of life there is no formal distinction between the sacred and the secular, between the religious and non-religious, between the spiritual and the material areas of life. Wherever the African is, there is his religion."
Certainly, the most consistent characteristic of Black people throughout the world is their fervent
belief and practice in some form of religion. Though the practice comes in many forms, it
consistently seeks to reaffirm the notion of oneness within and between people as well as with the
source of Divine force that flows through all people. Religion becomes the essential regulator for
the rhythms of life, which are subject to the distortions of material relativity. Religion is a
primary vehicle for re-affirming through shared experience and contacts the communality that exists
between the people. It is the vehicle that unified all of the community into a kinship of oneness.
Even the avowed Black atheist finds himself caught up in a religious drama if he maintains any form of in-depth contact with Black people. "A person cannot detach themselves from the religion of their group, for to do so is to be severed from ones roots, their foundation, their context of security their kinships, and the entire group of those who make one aware of their own existence."12
Certainly, the history of Black people throughout the world and in all eras has always occurred within
a religious context. From the building of the pyramids, throughout the rich kingdoms of the
African, King Solomon, all along the Nile, throughout the Asian world, and into North
America, Black people and their offspring have all been involved in a religious drama.
If consistency, as documented by aeons of Black history, is a source of data about binding universal laws, then we should look to invariables in that history for definitions of Black normality. From such a perspective it would seem that the most normal life-style for a Black person is a religious life-style. What is meant by a religious life-style is one that takes account of the unifying strand between people and throughout nature. It should serve to unify people into a bond of oneness that confirms the self through participation with others. It should also regulate the rhythm of life and provide rituals that restore order when disorder occurs. Religion should be a vehicle for the management of interpersonal harmony and it should provide methods for management and mastery of the material universe.
The suggestion here is that the spiritual definition of self that characterized the African requires that a
conceptualization of the personality of the African utilize a spiritual cosmology. The material
definition of self that dominates Western psychology from behaviorism to libido, is
inappropriate and inaccurate as definitions of African people. The application of any of these
theoretical structures to the mind of the Black person of necessity presents an incomplete and
inaccurate view of this human being with universal dimensions. The psychology of the Black person
can come from no less than a cosmology that takes account of the oneness of the African mind, the
rhythms of the African spirit, and the restoration of order where there is a disruption of rhythm. Though
this may sound unduly abstract and impractical or too philosophical, it, in fact,
corresponds with the existing realities of the African's world. A survey of the attitudes of the majority of African people
anywhere in the world would reveal those attitudes to reflect a religious conceptualization of their lives
and their world. If a function of the psychologist is to help describe normative reality, there is no
behavior that is more normative than Black religion. It is in religion or through religion that we find the
source of leadership, education, counseling, recreation, birth and death for African people. It
would not be far-fetched to assert that Black psychology is Black religion.
A contaminant has affected the traditionally rhythmic Black personality. This contaminant
emanated from contact and involvement with the arrhythmic Western personality. Nowhere is this
contamination more evident than in the personality of the "American Negro" This so-called "Negro" is
an American creation having been spawned from the loins of an insidious slavery system. This
slavery system is notorious as the most humanly degrading method of exploitation and abuse in the
history of civilized people. Its notoriety primarily stemmed from its long-term effect on the
personalities of its victims. Unlike other people of African descent around the globe, the former
American slave was thoroughly emptied of their traditions and prohibited from participation in those
societal-sustaining systems of shared cultural participation; a disharmony was inculcated into the
slave personality.
All societies develop and maintain their integrity as a people of shared origins with shared needs on the basis of their shared cultural experiences and traditions. In being emptied of these traditions, the American Black has been left slightly out of harmony with themselves and other people of African descent. The sense of oneness and rhythm that predominates in the traditional African worldview has been almost thoroughly uprooted from the conscious personality of the "Negro." The "Negro" has become arrhythmic to the extent that they have denied the unconscious prompting of their genetically endowed mentality. They have succumbed to the sway of the alien mentality, which though consistent with the social, cultural and psychological needs of the slave master was and is destructive to the needs of the Black people.
African personality was traditionally viewed as extending into the life space of all life forms,
particularly, that of related creatures. That extended self has since narrowed itself into fleshly isolation
under the ideology of individuality characteristic of Western mentality. Kinship patterns that radiated
outward to encompass all of the identifiable tribe have crumbled under the pressure of exalting a
nuclear family unit. Male/female relationships are fraught with disharmony as they frantically chase
the elusive alien models of beauty and conjugal balance. Religion, which was the nucleus of
traditional Black life, has become a superfluous moral annoyance. In light of this, one can only conclude
that the "Negro" has become arrhythmic to the extent that they have alienated themselves from
their traditional personality characteristics. To be restored to "Black" is to grow back into the
traditional rhythmic modes of relating discussed above.
Rhythm is the pulse of the unitary vitalism that flows through and permeates the African's mind
and world. It is manifested in everything from Black movements to Black speech, and, in more or
less subtle forms, in all aspects of Black life. It is simultaneously the essence of the oneness of the
African wherever they are and the motivation for unification that characterizes the proverbial search
of the African spirit. When disorder occurs, whether it is manifested physically, mentally, or spiritually,
the disruption emanates from a disturbance in the rhythm, which is the African's gauge of oneness.
Order is restored when we attain a reestablishment of social equilibrium with our brothers and sisters.
The kinship patterns of African people are geared toward maintenance of the same harmonious
balance between the person and their nuclear group. The striving to extend that balance leads to indefinite
extensions of the nuclear group itself. Male and female relationships acquire for the separate
partners the same harmonious equilibrium to the extent that the polar, oppositional forces of
maleness and femaleness are complementary in the actualization of the separate roles. Briefly, happiness
in such relationships is directly proportional to the degree to which the man is fully man and the
woman is un-ambivalently woman. Intra-personal and interpersonal harmony is mediated by religion
that facilitates the unique qualities of rhythm and
unity that characterize the motivational striving of the African mind.
The essential point is that we must reach beyond the materialistic and physical definitions of mind that characterize 'Western psychology and we must seek to understand the African mind within the context of its distinct characteristics and strivings. The concept of a unifying force or vitalism that pervades all of nature and particularly finds its highest expression in people along with its manifestation through rhythms represents the departure of the African psychologist from the personality theorist coming from the perspective of Western psychology.
1. Erny, Pierre, Childhood and Cosmos: The Social Psychology of the Black African Child. Ncw
York: New Perspectives, 1973.
2. Nobles, W., Africanity and Black Families, Sausalito, Calif., Black Scholar, Vol. 5, No. 9. June,
1974.
3. Forde, Daryll, African Worlds, New York: Oxford Uni versity Press, 1970
4. Erny, Pierre, op. cit.
5. Staples, Robert, "Strength an Inspiration: Black Families in the United States," to appear in
American Minority Lifestyles, Robert Hahenstein and Charles Mindel (eds.) New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston, 1974.
6. Erny, Pierre, op. cit.
7. Forde, Daryll, op. cit.
8. Erny, Pierre, op. Cit.
9. IBID.
10. Plumpp, S., Black Rituals, Chicago: Third World Press, 1972.
11. Mbiti, J.S., African Religions and Philosophy, Garden City, New York: Doubleday and
Company. 1970.
12. IBID.